Diabetic kidney disease is an important diabetic complications as a causative disease for the progression of dialysis. However the current therapeutic option has not been fully satisfied for completely suppressing the progression of renal injury. One of the reasons is that the model animals are limited that exhibit progressive renal injury similar to those of patients such as advanced urinary protein excretion, glomerular sclerosis, renal interstitial fibrosis and decreased glomerular filtration rate. And also, this is one of the important factors that pathophysiology of diabetic kidney disease has not yet been fully clarify.
SGLT2 inhibitors are medicines that promote the excretion of glucose into the urine by suppressing the reabsorption of glucose from the renal proximal tubule and induce a blood glucose lowering effect. In order to verify the effect of SGLT2 inhibitors on diabetic complications, we examined the effects of luseogliflozin using two kind of animals expressing the progressive renal injury including the advanced features of diabetic kidney disease similar to patients. Luseogliflozin and combination therapy with ACE inhibitor prevented the progression of renal injury in these animals, and it suggests that SGLT2 inhibitors could be a candidate of therapeutic option for diabetic kidney disease.